ecohome guy

One sure sign of spring is more people out walking. With the near-perfect weather we've had this past week you just want to get out in it.

Recent polls show that home buyers rank proximity to daily conveniences as one of the two most important factors in choosing a neighborhood—more important than schools and property taxes! If you can walk to those conveniences, all the better.

Atlanta has some neighborhoods like that. It's easy to pinpoint them because of a great mapping tool called Walk Score. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. and assigns it points on a scale from 0 - 100. 0 is on a deserted island somewhere and 100 is walker's paradise.

For example, LEEDing Edge, my ecohome listing at 546 Edgewood Ave., has a walk score of 88 and is defined as "Very Walkable". If you take a peek at the map below, you can see what makes it so, with all the walkable destinations displayed on the map.

Using this tool we can now identify Atlanta's top ten most walkable neighborhoods with their corresponding walk scores. They are:

1. Five Points:  95
2. Poncey-Highland:  93
3. Sweet Auburn: 88
4. Midtown:  87
5. Atlanta-Inman Park:  86
6. Old Fourth Ward:  84
7. Downtown:  81
8. Virginia-Highland:  80
9. Home Park:  76
10. Cabbage Town:  74

These are some pretty desirable places to live with high quality-of-life. And there are homes for sale in these areas at record low prices. Imagine targeting one of these neighborhoods for the purchase of a green-certified home or greenovating a fixer-upper foreclosure, enjoying the stimulus plan rebates in the process. You could save gas + energy while living a healthier lifestyle.

And now I'm adding to the savings with my very own up front ecohome guy stimulus.

Do you have a goal to move to a more walkable neighborhood in 2009? For the privilege of working as Buyer's Agent with your deep green self I am offering you a cash rebate after closing of up to 1% of the sales price, depending on the walk score of your new home. A score of 100 would qualify for the full 1%. Cash rebates apply to the purchase of Atlanta homes inside the perimeter with walk scores of 75 or greater. So any homes in Atlanta's top ten most walkable neighborhoods should qualify.

Let's say you bought LEEDing Edge. It has a walk score of 88. I would rebate you 88% of the 1% of the sales price at closing. The home is priced at $489K, so you would get back $4303.20 at closing! To calculate the rebate on the home of your choice, just type in the address at WalkScore.com. Take the walk score and put a decimal point and two zeros in front of it.  Multiply this by the sales price and you've got your rebate. So in our example 489,000 X .0088 = 4303.20.

Call me at 404.421.9968 or email me to get started on your walkable neighborhood home purchase.

The Atlanta Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is actively promoting sustainable design and construction and has elected to promote LEEDing Edge [546 Edgewood Ave.] {FMLS #3849895} as exemplary of best practices in green building and one of Atlanta's first LEED Platinum homes.

Please join me on Saturday, February 21 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM for an AIA sponsored tour of this soon-to-be-completed landmark in the Atlanta residential market.

Danneman's will be supplying hot coffee and cocoa like they did for the December tour, so bring your coffee cup if you're deep green.

Architect/Builder extraordinaire Michael "Fletch" Fletcher will be conducting a continuing education session at the beginning of the event. Some have speculated that Fletch may also be an environmental superhero, noting that he and Captain Planet have never been seen in public together. We're just not sure how he hides the mullet when not in costume.

For more information on LEED AP Architect Michael Fletcher and his firm Ecologics Design, click here and here.

Soon homes can have a label that displays the home's energy efficiency much like the energy guide label on appliances or the MPG labels on the windows of new cars. 

Being introduced this spring by the Department of Energy [DOE], the E-Scale was developed as a tool for "consumers to better understand the value and compare performance of homes, even across different models and square footage."

Builders may place the E-Scale on or near the home's electric panel to show potential homeowners the energy performance achieved by that particular home or model.

The E-Scale is based on the well-established Home Energy Rating System (HERS) index, developed by RESNET, the Residential Energy Services Network and helps homebuyers and homeowners make smart energy decisions when purchasing, renting, or updating a home. It is designed to provide clear, objective answers to basic questions:

• Will this home help me save money on energy bills?
• How many "miles per gallon" does this home get?
• How does it compare to a typical new home?
• How close is it to the "ultimate" – a Net-Zero Energy Home?

Real world example:  LEEDing Edge is projected to have a 61 on the E-Scale which is approximately 40% more energy efficient than a typical new home built to code.

Here's more on the LEED Platinum offering at 546 Edgewood Avenue:

I've touted the city skyline views in previous posts. Now architect/builder Michael Fletcher has sent me the above conceptual showing the view with a rendering of the green roof terrace. The roof is already a key component of this residence because it catches rainwater for retention in a cistern on the ground floor. With the green roof terrace the footprint of this urban infill project is recaptured as a premium amenity, providing a private respite 4 stories above the amped city life of the Old Fourth Ward. The white surface and vegetative roof cover will help to keep the interior cooler during Atlanta's hot summers. Refer to journal entries I see a black roof and I want to paint it white  and Green Acres Over Atlanta for more on the subject of white/green roofs.

Also wanted to officially announce that the sales price for LEEDing Edge has been reduced to $489,000.

We saw an outstanding turn-out for the Dec. 5th Open House. Dozens of folks braved the chilly weather to tour 546 Edgewood Avenue and learn more about what constitutes a LEED Platinum home. Of particular interest to everyone was the rainwater catchment system. The components were very visible in the home's pre-drywall state, so you could see how the water will be funneled from the roof to the 600 gallon cistern on the ground floor. This system will reduce water consumption by 82%. This is a compelling feature given that we continue to languish in a Stage 4 drought and that water shortages are predicted to loom larger as Atlanta grows.

Architect/Builder Michael Fletcher led guided tours and answered questions.  In addition, he posted information sheets at all the points-of-interest providing guests with a crash course in what makes this home a landmark in green residential construction. So I've posted that information in the above Google Presentation for your viewing pleasure from the comfort of your own home. We've also compiled the info sheets into a PowerPoint presentation that you can download here.

What can I say? I'm your full-service EcoBroker...

This Friday, Dec. 5th is an excellent opportunity to tour some of the area's greener homes.  

I'll be joining Michael "Fletch" Fletcher in hosting a "pre-drywall" open house of his LEEDing Edge Project at 546 Edgewood Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward. This home will be one of Atlanta's first LEED Platinum certified residential offerings when completed in December. Come see what makes a home qualify for this newest and highest standard in green building. Fletch, a LEED AP Architect, will be on site from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. for a peek behind the curtain of green construction and sustainable design.

Free coffee and cocoa will be served, courtesy of Danneman's. If you're deep green feel free to bring your favorite Christmas coffee cup or travel mug.

Click here to download an invitation with detailed directions.

You can learn more about LEEDing Edge from these previous posts:

• A LEEDing Edge live/work ecohome for the Old Fourth Ward
• A new LEED Platinum home on Edgewood Avenue
• Reusing Building Materials
• O4W EcoHome Rising

Then scoot on over to Decatur for a tour of some of their greener residences. "Living Green" is the theme of their 2008 Candlelight Tour of Homes. Starting at 5:00 p.m., take the free Cliff shuttle from home to home and to several other points of interest. This year’s tour focuses on eight homes renovated in eco-friendly ways, using green materials and techniques to minimize their impact on the Earth. 

Even the transportation for the tour is green: Cliff Shuttles are a transportation alternative for Emory students. The shuttles run on B20 biodiesel, a fuel created with cooking oil recycled from Emory dining services and other area restaurants.

Go here for more information on the Decatur Candlelight Tour of Homes.

This lil' ol' EcoBroker is proud to announce that construction on 546 Edgewood Avenue is officially underway. We call the project LEEDing Edge because it is on track to be one of Atlanta's first LEED Platinum homes. We almost had the home under contract before construction even began. Alas, it was not meant to be so the home is still available to a qualified buyer [FMLS #3750205].

The home is located within Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward at the corner of Howell and Edgewood and at the edge of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic District. The property is zoned Commercial/Residential and will feature a green roof, rainwater reclamation, and will be electrically engineered for solar. The home is also within walking distance to a future stop on the BeltLine.

The photo above shows the home coming out of the ground. Below is a rendering of how the building will appear when completed later this year [click for larger version].

The Old Fourth Ward itself is in the beginning stages of a fantastic transformation [www.o4wplan.com].  The final Master Plan for the area was approved on August 12, 2008 and features:

• All new construction to LEED, Earthcraft, or other evolving green-building standards
• More pedestrian and bike-friendly with emphasis on new parks, green space, and community gardens
• Underutilized land converted to mixed-use and more thickly settled land-planning except in historic neighborhoods
• Ample senior housing for aging-in-place
• No gated communities
• Neighborhood Power Plant
• Financial resources for green updates
• Green infrastructure
• A significant BeltLine Redevelopment District